The present invention relates to an input generating device such as a track or scroll wheel for hand held electronic devices.
Input generating devices such as track wheels or scroll wheels are used to generate inputs associated with the operation of compact electronic devices and wireless devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, pagers, organizers and other hand held electronic and/or wireless devices. Typically, track wheels are rotationally and often depressibly mounted within the device for on screen functioning such as navigation and selection, with a portion of the wheel extending outwardly from the electronic device housing, accessible by the user for rotation and depression thereof. To achieve maximum convenience and usability, the scroll wheels are typically of a certain minimum circumference. Hand held electronic devices generally have limited internal space for housing such scroll wheels or track wheels. Furthermore, as the size of the devices which utilize track wheels or scroll wheels for on-screen navigation and/or selection functioning has been reduced in order to enhance the convenience to the user, the amount of space taken up by the scroll wheel within the device is becoming relatively greater. In many instances, track or scroll wheels of standard size take up too much space within the device. Simply reducing the size of the wheel would certainly reduce the amount of space occupied by wheel in the device, however, by doing so, the user experience would be downgraded by not being able to operate the track wheel in a convenient manner.
There is a need for an input generating device comparable to a track or scroll wheel which generates inputs associated with the operation of hand held electronic devices, the input generating device having reduced space requirements while at the same time being cost effective to manufacture and being comfortable and efficient to use.